In 2018 the US Army released the illustration of its vision for a networked landmine concept. The service has awarded Textron Systems with a low-rate initial production contract to produce its new XM204 top-attack munition. (US Army)

The US Army awarded Textron Systems with a five-year, low-rate initial production contract to produce its new XM204 top-attack munition, a landmine designed to destroy combat vehicles.

Henry Finneral, the company's senior vice-president for weapon systems, told Janes on 9 August about the new contract inked in late July worth up to USD354 million. So far, he said the army has ordered 117 XM204 units and 38 trainers for delivery between July and late September 2023. Each subsequent order could range from 25 to 400-plus weapons, Finneral added.

This new weapon is part of the army's plan to replace its Family of Scatterable Mines (FASCAM), which it deems to be ‘nearing their end of useful life'. This replacement plan includes the XM204 top-attack munition and a future bottom-attack munition. Both would eventually be tied together to form a ‘full network capability'.

The total value of discharged defence offsets in India has grown strongly since 2020, according to Indian MoD statistics. (Indian MoD)

Foreign companies have implemented defence offsets in India worth USD6.83 billion in the past 15 years, India's Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt has said in parliament. This total, he added, represents 82% of foreign firms' total offset obligations in the period up until 1 August.

In his parliamentary reply, Bhatt said 15 foreign companies have “missed the first deadline” set for offset obligations but gave no details. He also pointed to measures that the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has introduced to prevent foreign suppliers defaulting on, or delaying, their offset obligations.

“For unfulfilled offset obligations, penalties, as applicable, have been imposed on the defaulting vendors as per the governing defence offset guidelines,” said Bhatt. “Further, in genuine cases, re-phasing of offset obligations has been allowed to enable vendors to discharge the pending offset obligations.”

The US Army conducted its second live-fire test with Iron Dome at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. (US Army)

US Army soldiers recently used Rafael Advanced Defense Systems' Iron Dome during a live-fire test against cruise missile threats, the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) announced on 2 August.

The service acquired two Iron Dome batteries as an ‘interim' cruise missile defence capability following a congressional mandate. However, the service has not yet fielded the weapon and is continuing to test it out.

During the recent test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment “successfully” detected, tracked, and intercepted multiple cruise missile and unmanned aerial system surrogate targets, according to the IMDO.

“This is the second interception test since the two batteries were supplied to the US Army at the end of 2020,” IMDO Director in the Israeli Ministry of Defense Moshe Patel said in the statement. “In this test as well, the system intercepted all the threats, while being interoperable with US systems.”